Land Prioritisation
By Ronald Eglin
The land question in South Africa, one of the most important issues of our time, has not yet been adequately addressed. The vision of the Bill of Rights is not being realised. Citizens are not, in significant quantities, gaining access to land on an equitable basis (section 25.5). Without land, other rights like housing (section 26), sufficient food and water (27.1.b) and an environment not harmful to health and wellbeing (24.a) are very difficult to achieve. Land needs to be prioritised.
In rural areas, land is not being redistributed quickly enough and those that do gain access to rural land often find it is of inappropriate quality for productive purposes and/or they do not have the necessary skills to productively utilise it. Minister Nkwinti hinted, in an interview with the Business Day, that the government is considering extending its deadline to achieve a target of transferring 30 percent of land to black owners by 2014 to 2025. To date it has achieved a target of five percent (http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-11-10-govt-remains-committed-to-landreform-objectives ).
In urban areas, the number of people in need of housing continues to remain high. When people do get land they find that they live in locations far from opportunities and they are unable to afford the on-going maintenance costs associated with owning a house.
The land question in South Africa, one of the most important issues of our time, has not yet been adequately addressed. The vision of the Bill of Rights is not being realised. Citizens are not, in significant quantities, gaining access to land on an equitable basis (section 25.5). Without land, other rights like housing (section 26), sufficient food and water (27.1.b) and an environment not harmful to health and wellbeing (24.a) are very difficult to achieve. Land needs to be prioritised.
In rural areas, land is not being redistributed quickly enough and those that do gain access to rural land often find it is of inappropriate quality for productive purposes and/or they do not have the necessary skills to productively utilise it. Minister Nkwinti hinted, in an interview with the Business Day, that the government is considering extending its deadline to achieve a target of transferring 30 percent of land to black owners by 2014 to 2025. To date it has achieved a target of five percent (http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-11-10-govt-remains-committed-to-landreform-objectives ).
In urban areas, the number of people in need of housing continues to remain high. When people do get land they find that they live in locations far from opportunities and they are unable to afford the on-going maintenance costs associated with owning a house.
Housing Delivery and Backlog
To date government has provided 2.8 million housing opportunities for more than 13 million people. Yet despite this globally acknowledged mass delivery of homes for the poor, the department is still faced with a backlog of almost 2.1 million home units–a figure which has remained constant over the past five years. (Building the nation, Issue 2, 2009, Department of Human Settlements, page 7)
In order to more effectively address the land question, three significant mind shifts need to be made.
Firstly, land needs to be conceptualised as a livelihood asset. In the rural context, land is valued for its productive purposes, to be used to grow and raise food. The challenge becomes how to make sure land is used productively—how to affordably increase soil fertility and the skills of those using the land. In the urban context, land is valued for its locational advantages, to be able to access job opportunities, educational facilities, health services, recreation and entertainment. The challenge becomes how to provide access to well located land—how to afford to buy well located land and keep this land in the hands of those that need it.
Secondly, land needs to be understood as a single resource, and managed through one ministry and department dedicated to land in the same way that water is understood to be a single national resource. At the moment, we have the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform dealing predominantly with rural land, the Department of Human Settlements, especially through the newly created Housing Development Agency, dealing with urban residential land, and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs dealing with spatial planning. There is still too much confusion as to who is supposed to do what. Land must become a single ministry that deals with all land issues from urban to rural and all shades in between, for example peri-urban and rural village, etc. At the very least, as an interim arrangement, a series of land clusters at various tiers of government and levels of bureaucracy must be established where land issues can be coordinated.
Thirdly, land redistribution, both rural and urban, needs to become the central rallying point for government. Land redistribution will not simply happen through nice talk and goodwill. There needs to be a huge increase in the amount of human and financial energy and capacity that is channelled towards land redistribution. Government needs to start using all the tools it has at its disposal, from land redistribution grants, land expropriation, land taxation, land use management, to spatial planning, in order to make significant inroads into ensuring that land is redistributed and that the previously disenfranchised have access to land.
It is only once we recognise land as the key livelihood asset that it is, that land is being managed as a single asset through a single department, and that significant resources are channelled towards land redistribution that we will reach the goal of everyone having access to land on an equitable basis.
To date government has provided 2.8 million housing opportunities for more than 13 million people. Yet despite this globally acknowledged mass delivery of homes for the poor, the department is still faced with a backlog of almost 2.1 million home units–a figure which has remained constant over the past five years. (Building the nation, Issue 2, 2009, Department of Human Settlements, page 7)
In order to more effectively address the land question, three significant mind shifts need to be made.
Firstly, land needs to be conceptualised as a livelihood asset. In the rural context, land is valued for its productive purposes, to be used to grow and raise food. The challenge becomes how to make sure land is used productively—how to affordably increase soil fertility and the skills of those using the land. In the urban context, land is valued for its locational advantages, to be able to access job opportunities, educational facilities, health services, recreation and entertainment. The challenge becomes how to provide access to well located land—how to afford to buy well located land and keep this land in the hands of those that need it.
Secondly, land needs to be understood as a single resource, and managed through one ministry and department dedicated to land in the same way that water is understood to be a single national resource. At the moment, we have the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform dealing predominantly with rural land, the Department of Human Settlements, especially through the newly created Housing Development Agency, dealing with urban residential land, and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs dealing with spatial planning. There is still too much confusion as to who is supposed to do what. Land must become a single ministry that deals with all land issues from urban to rural and all shades in between, for example peri-urban and rural village, etc. At the very least, as an interim arrangement, a series of land clusters at various tiers of government and levels of bureaucracy must be established where land issues can be coordinated.
Thirdly, land redistribution, both rural and urban, needs to become the central rallying point for government. Land redistribution will not simply happen through nice talk and goodwill. There needs to be a huge increase in the amount of human and financial energy and capacity that is channelled towards land redistribution. Government needs to start using all the tools it has at its disposal, from land redistribution grants, land expropriation, land taxation, land use management, to spatial planning, in order to make significant inroads into ensuring that land is redistributed and that the previously disenfranchised have access to land.
It is only once we recognise land as the key livelihood asset that it is, that land is being managed as a single asset through a single department, and that significant resources are channelled towards land redistribution that we will reach the goal of everyone having access to land on an equitable basis.